In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the phantasmagoric setting created by Poe not only serves as an exquisite backdrop for the story, but also provides the atmosphere allows the reader to penetrate the mystery of the characters. Through Poe's descriptive personification, the physical state of the mansion becomes representative of the mental state of the Usher family and its individual members, offering the reader a glimpse into their enigmatic characterization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Throughout the story, the author gives many clues to the meaning behind the elaborate and despondent setting, but the reader is certain of his connection to Roderick's own characters. The narrator tells us that Roderick felt "an influence which some peculiarities in the simple form and substance of his family home, by dint of long suffering, he said, had obtained upon his spirit" (Poe 73). The words form and substance are used, implying that the physicality of the mansion is not the only aspect that strikes Roderick. On a superficial level, the general decrepit nature of the land causes a despondency in Roderick, as equally, to a lesser extent, in the narrator himself. However, there is a deeper connection here between the house and Roderick that the narrator does not and cannot share. The reader sees that the narrator's description of the house and his description of the man share great similarities. The mansion has “shabby walls” and “empty eye-like windows” that directly mirror Roderick's mortal face (Poe 70). This personification of the villa serves to make the connection between the house and the character abundantly clear. Initially, Roderick may have adopted those attributes of the mansion in which he lived, but as the metaphysical bond between the two forms grew in strength, the house in turn began to adopt attributes that became manifest in Roderick's mind. Having established this connection, the author goes on to provide clues to the mental state of the family members and, from this, foreshadows the end of the story. The narrator points out that "there seemed to be an enormous inconsistency between the still perfect fit of the parts [of the mansion] and the dilapidated condition of the individual stones" (Poe 71). Here the individual parts are representative of the members of the Usher family as they still constitute a noble house, but their personal stability is unreliable. We therefore resort to prefiguration when we ask the question: how long can a building last if each of its stones is weak? How long will it take for the madness of individual members to bring down the entire family? Likewise, because the house represents Roderick himself, parts of his mind are crumbling and will not be able to support him much longer. The large crack in the house further indicates the family's future downfall, a “barely perceptible crack,” running the entire length of the house (Poe 71). This further indicates the mental state of the house's inhabitants; you might also remember the term "cracked" used to describe clinically insane patients. Although at the beginning of the story, Roderick appears to still be intact in some respects, participating in regular activities and ordering his family's affairs, the way he goes about them truly scares the narrator. This strange effect manifests itself in the mansion, as the narrator says: “I still wondered to discover how unfamiliar were the fantasies which the ordinary images were arousing” (Poe 72). The narrator has seen large houses and curiously adorned rooms before, but the particular combination of these attributes is what strikes fear into his heart..